


Still Undiscovered

by rilina



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Community: 31_days, Gen, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-04
Updated: 2007-05-04
Packaged: 2017-10-03 06:45:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rilina/pseuds/rilina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young lions grow up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still Undiscovered

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for series ending. For 31_days' May 7 theme: _would that I had discovered you, like America._ Also, belatedly, for aishuu request for a HikaGo fic featuring a minor character.

Young lions grow up. Raw brilliance matures into mastery or mediocrity; beginner dans rise through the ranks or get stuck along the way. And people begin to forget how it used to be: the days when Shindou didn't carry a fan, when Akira's jacket sleeves always seemed a couple centimeters too short, when losing the Hokuto Cup was a given rather than a shock.

Touya Kouyo watches indulgently as the next generation chases after his old titles, but he also remembers how things once were. If he wanted to, he could recreate the years that have passed like the moves of his last game; he's marked them that carefully in his long search for the one lion who simply disappeared. For some, he knows, Sai's become little more than a fable, a story to tell to impressionable young insei; but for those who have played him, Sai remains very real.

Great players will find their way to the pros, he used to be fond of saying; now he silently adds _all but one._ Some mornings, especially when he's lately returned from another trip abroad, he recreates that single match again, ever conscious of the hand emerging from the shadows to challenge him.

They're might-have-beens, should-have-beens, all those games with Sai that no one has ever gotten to play. Sai's kifu tell their stories, but they also keep their secrets.

Nevertheless, black and white, the stones still run across the board, and matches continue to be won or lost at every stage of the game. Tomorrow, Akira challenges Shindou for the Hon'inbo; Yashiro's just taken the Gosei. When all is said and done, the hand of God has still not yet been played.

Touya Kouyo watches, searches, and waits.


End file.
